Record And Share Sounds Instantly From iPhone With SoundCloud App

SoundCloud is well known
within the recording industry and among music enthusiasts as a
secure online space to share audio tracks, ranging from
unfinished ideas shared between musicians to finished tracks
getting pre-released to reviewers and radio stations. More than
two million users have signed up for accounts.

This morning, the company took a step toward broadening its
audience with a new free version of its iPhone
app that will let users record sounds and post them
immediately to their SoundCloud account. Users can also tag
sounds with a location and add an image.

Musicians could find it useful for recording and sharing
impromptu ideas and jam sessions, but SoundCloud CEO Alexander
Ljung envisions it a general-purpose tool, like an equivalent to
Instagram
for audio content. People could use it to record and share
lectures, live concerts, ambient sounds, even conversations
between journalists and sources.

Although the app is free, SoundCloud requires users to sign up
for an account to post files online. Free accounts can upload a
maximum of 120 minutes and can only share tracks with up to 100
users. After that, paid
tiers start at 29 Euro per year and offer more recording
time, more sharing, and other benefits. All users can control the
spread of confidential tracks by sending out so-called secret
links to named users, who can't pass them along, and by dictating
that users can only stream (not download) audio from those links.